Test Equipment Connection Car Wins 2014 Electrathon Event in Florida
On Saturday December 6, 2014 the Test Equipment Electrathon team raced at Middleton High School in Tampa. This year, because of other events taking place at the school, the race was moved to a different parking lot than the one used in past years. The course was a simple oval which is fine, but this was the roughest course we have ever encountered! Most of the track was OK, but there was a patched area in the asphalt (it was turn two in the first race, turn 3 in the second race) that created multiple bone-jarring bumps on every lap. The racers tried every possible line through that turn and there was just no good way. The first 1-hour race was run in a clockwise direction (all right turns) and when it was over several drivers complained that their left elbows and shoulders were sore from the beating they took against the insides of the cars. The good news is the Test Equipment Connection cars, with the Robinson father and son team driving, finished second and third. Rodney Schreck of Miami won by 2 laps driving a car built for him by the Robinsons, so that means Robinson built cars finished 1-2-3.
The second race ran the opposite direction (all left turns). The bumpy section was now giving the driver’s right arms and shoulders all the torture plus the constant beating was starting to take its toll on the cars. Several of them had to make pit stops for repairs; a couple dropped out because the issues were too extreme to be repaired in the pit area. One car even lost a wheel, a very rare occurrence in Electrathon racing! At the 23 minute mark (43rd lap), as Jim Robinson Sr. was exiting turn 2, the #94 car suddenly danced sideways. He slowed, limped around the rough 3rdturn, and ducked into the pits with a flat rear tire. Changing the rear tire would take upward of 15 minutes and the laps lost would be insurmountable, so the #94 car was retired from the race. With 6 minutes remaining race leader Rodney Schreck coasted into the pits; the key had come out of his motor sprocket and it was slipping. Jim Sr. made a quick temporary repair to Schreck’s car and got him going again, but he lost a total of 3 laps in the pits. The Electrocutioners’ car from Orlando had inherited the lead when Schreck stopped for repairs, but Test Equipment Connection Lab Technician Jim Robinson Jr. was in 3rd place and closing the distance between them. Robinson passed the Electrocutioners car on the backstretch of the last lap and won the second race by about 6 seconds over the Electrocutioners car from Orlando.
At the end of the day when all the laps were totaled, the Test Equipment car #13 with Lab Technician Jim Robinson Jr. driving won the event! Rodney Shreck of Miami was second, and the Electrocutioners car was third. The other Test Equipment car #94 was credited with fifth place (6 cars in Open division).
Next race – January 17 at Wharton High School in Tampa.
http://www.electrathonamerica.org/Welcome_to_Electrathon_America.html
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